For the icing

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 x 250g tubs cream cheese or mascarpone

350g icing sugar

Method

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease 2 x 20cm round sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. Tip all the sponge ingredients, apart from the food colouring, into a mixing bowl, then beat with an electric whisk until smooth.

Working quickly, weigh the mixture into another bowl to work out the total weight, then weigh exactly half the mixture back into the mixing bowl. Pick 2 of your colours and stir a little into each mix. Keep going until you are happy with the colour – the colour of the batter now will be very similar to the finished cake, so be brave! Scrape the different batters into the tins, trying to spread and smooth as much as possible – but try not to waste a drop of the batter – a rubber spatula will help you. Bake on the same oven shelf for 12 mins until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.

Gently turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool. Wash the tins and bowls thoroughly, and start again from step 1 – this time using another 2 colours. Unless you’re making the optional pink layer, repeat one more time to get 6 sponges, all of different colours. Leave them all to cool.

To make the icing, very briefly beat the vanilla and cream cheese or mascarpone with an electric whisk until smooth. Sift in the icing sugar and gently fold in with a spatula. Be careful – the more you work it, the runnier it will get, increasing the chance of splitting.

Smear a little icing on your cake stand or plate – just a splodge to stick the first sponge. Start with the red, then spread with some icing right to the very edge. Repeat, sandwiching on top the orange, yellow, green, blue and finally purple sponges. Spread the remaining icing thickly all over the sides and top of the cake. For more tips and expert advice on how to create the perfect rainbow cake, check out our tips, below.

Recipe Tip

How to create the perfect colours

To make sure you’ve got a good balance of colours, test your colourings in a little water first – I tried over 20 shades before I found my favourite combination! Find out more about colourings

Recipe Tip

Tips for a professional finish

When you make each batch, keep a tiny
blob of batter back – then, as you dye
each future batter, you can make sure the
colour strengths match.
A palette knife, which has a long,
rounded and flexible blade, makes icing
big cakes much easier, as the blade is
long enough to scrape the whole side at
once. You can buy them in cookshops.
A turntable really helps if you’re trying
to ice a big cake. If you don’t have one,
use a cake stand instead.

Recipe Tip

Trimming your sponges

We've kept the sponges as light as possible so they may be slightly rounded when they come out of the oven. You may want to trim them just a shade, to flatten so they all stack neatly together. We've answered your FAQs on sponges here.

Recipe Tip

Make an extra layer

My recipe makes six sponge layers, but you can make one extra layer by halving the cake quantities and baking a single sponge dyed pink – use this as your seventh layer. It’s not strictly necessary, the cake will still look fabulous with six – but why not! Click here for more tips on sponges.

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Comments, questions and tips

If you add butter to the cream cheese icing it makes it more robust and much tastier.

Beveli

25th Jan, 2016

After reading some reviews I was scared, but I wanted to make this cake for my daughters 4 th birthday rainbow party and being a denser cake it was the only option in creating a really tall cake.
And it was amazing. I did a test run initially weeks back and did the half measure but it was too fidly as thicker batter and even though I measured perfectly they came out uneven so I opted to make them individually using two thirds of the mixture (83g butter, 150 g flour, 100 g caster sugar, 2 eggs, two thirds teaspoon of baking powder and vanilla, still a pinch of salt).
Made them over 2 nights, froze all of them and bought them out the day before for icing. Just needed to cut a little of the top to even it out.
Cream cheese Icing was the correct amount however I only used a little in between as you need a lot to hide over the top and sides to hide the colours. I'm in oz so it was a very hot day so kept icing in fridge to keep cool and workable whilst icing.
Using this amount though it is a huge tall cake, however everyone loved it. And the effect of the colours was amazing (used queen gel and you only need a couple drops which doesn't alter taste at all)
Cut it into 2cm by 2cm pieces vertical and stuck a skewer stick down the middle for the kids so everyone got to have all the colours.

Louise Campbell

16th Jan, 2016

5.05

I just made this for my daughter's birthday and decorated with rainbows and my little ponies. Thank you to everyone for their comments. I froze the cakes before icing them and made an icing with 2 packs of butter, icing sugar and a tub of marscarpone (which was delicious). I thought the cakes tasted great and I got lots of compliments!

Smithy252

16th Jan, 2016

1.3

I decided to make this cake as a surprise for my wife. I followed this recipe by the letter and wish I had read the comments beforehand.
"Tip all the ingredients in, bake for 12 minutes". In my gut it didn't feel right but went along anyway. Cakes rose well but sank straight after coming out the oven. The cakes don't taste particularly appetising and are very dense. They're edible but you don't be l need a big piece to soon fill up!
Mascarpone icing worked well in that it didn't turn runny and it set even better once the cake had 10 minutes in the fridge. It didn't look pretty though so covered it in ready to roll icing and added some decorative piped icing.
It's quite a large cake and with it being so dense, it feels even bigger. I fear this one will be going in the bin. All in all, poor recipe with disappointing results.

green cupboard

3rd Nov, 2015

It is good you should make it now

marychef

31st Aug, 2015

I'm having a go at a bit of this. I only want 2 layers so I'm going for green and pink. The sponges are out of the oven and I should have put more colouring in for a more vibrant colour - we are now going for a more pastel look. I also added chopped hazelnuts to the green layer and freeze dried strawberries to the pink layer. The mixture was very thick and I wonder if my eggs weren't the right size. It's reading all the comments that have prompted me to have a go (and it's another rainy Bank Holiday), hence adding more flavour to the sponges. I'm confused by those who complained that it's a big cake. With six or seven layers what did they envisage?

jc1000

3rd Jul, 2015

3.8

Showstopper of a cake!!!! Made this for daughters 18th birthday buffet for family & friends and it was a great success. Having read the previous comments I was a bit nervous - I'm not very good with cakes usually. Followed cake recipe exactly and although it's a bit time consuming it's very straightforward. I used Wilton colouring gels from Lakeland and the colours were fabulous with no taste to them. Made the cakes the day before, wrapped them in clingfilm & stored in tins over night before assembling just before the party. I used mascarpone for the icing - absolutely delicious but could have done with a bit more. Also used full fat as have been advised that the low fat is more likely to split & get runny. The one thing I would suggest is that you ice the cake in 2 goes - by the time I had assembled it and covered the top, the icing was very soft for doing the sides. Could have done with re-chilling but I was running out of time. However, no-one but me seemed to notice the inexpert icing! The cake is denser than a victoria sponge - but it wasn't heavy or dry & the balance with the sweet creamy icing was perfect. Would have been a 5 with more icing! Don't be put off by bad reviews - this cake is a real winner!

CurlysCooking

28th Jun, 2015

I made a quicker version on my blog with ordinary buttercream. Looks and tastes great!
http://www.curlyscooking.co.uk/?p=2308

ljarmstrong14

14th Jun, 2015

5.05

I made this cake for my daughters 1st birthday party, & was absolutely thrilled with the results. It looked so impressive, and tasted lovely too. I only did 6 layers, but it still resulted I a tall cake! I used the Sugarflair gel colours which give wonderfully vibrant colours, but without needing to use too much of it. I will definitely make this cake again

Susiebluetoo

30th Mar, 2015

My son made this without help, when I saw the plain flour out I thought he had made a mistake but no that's what the recipient says.... Self raising would make more sense . Then the timer went off ...said to bake for 12 mins ?? Not long enough,20 mins more like !
Made a very dense cake , not light and fluffy like a sponge should be .
Would be better off coloring a Victoria sandwich recipe or ANY other recipie but this one to make a better cake .

Pages

No, this is for the whole cake. You only have to treble the cake quantities to make the 6 layers.
I would recommend having extra cream cheese as well as the 3 tubs of 250g, though, as hiding the beautiful colours underneath is quite challenging!

delmorse

4th Aug, 2014

Having to type again as posted in comments incorrectly. My question is why is the recipe described as having buttercream when the icing uses cream cheese?

Sarah Dimech

14th Jun, 2014

I need to know exactly the amount used for the purple colouring because it always comes out grey or at most very light purple. Last time I tried making a dozen cupcakes using Dr O's purple but I was not happy with the end result of the colour... can someone help me pls?

jjmccrae

11th Mar, 2014

I want to make this cake for my other half, birthday is next week (18th March)... I only have this Friday off, but I was wondering, does anyone know how long this would last?
4 Days before the first slice is cut? Would that be ok?
Thanks for any help or advice.

goodfoodteam

24th Mar, 2014

Hi there. We wouldn't advise making the cake that far in advance, 1-2 days would be much better.

NatCantBake

2nd Mar, 2014

I'm rubbish at baking but my sister-in-law wants me to make a cake for my nieces birthday in September. I'm thinking of doing something like this but can this be covered in fondant icing? She's mad on The Little Mermaid so was going to use aqua/purple/pink layers and then do some sea themed decorations on the fondant but will it work?

goodfoodteam

10th Mar, 2014

Hey there, thanks for getting in touch. Yes, those layers sound great - it should work well. Hope it turns out nicely.

Djgillen@btinte...

1st Oct, 2013

If you're making the pink layer, how do you half 3 eggs?

goodfoodteam

10th Mar, 2014

Hi there, thanks for getting in touch. In this case, we'd beat three eggs together, weigh the total and then halve it. You can freeze the leftover eggs for another time or eat them for breakfast.

missmissmoss

29th Jul, 2013

Hi, I am hoping to make the Rainbow Cake for my son's 1st birthday, I've had my heart set on it so have taken on all the feedback here and remain determined!! I was just wondering if anyone who used the Sugarflair colours would have the time to tell me which shades they used? Thanks x

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